Fergie Statement: I don’t want a rift between myself and United fans

Following accusations that Sir Alex Ferguson offered his backing to the Glazers simply because he stood to gain financially from the proposed IPO, the manager has spoken out to deny these rumours.

“Being aware of the media coverage that is currently ongoing I felt, on this occasion, that I should make my position clear to the Manchester United fans,” said Ferguson. “In regards to suggestions that I have praised the Glazer Family because I stand to financially benefit from the proposed IPO, there is not a single grain of truth in this allegation. I do not receive any payments, directly or indirectly, from the IPO. Ultimately, I run the football side of this club and in order to do this, you need backing from above. The Glazer family have let me get on with my job, there is no interference or obstruction, only support. My decisions and beliefs are not based around what is best for my personal financial gain. That is an accusation that insults me. If that was the case, I would have left Old Trafford a long time ago. I am speaking out because I do not want a situation to develop whereby the media and other parties create a rift, however small, between myself and any Manchester United fan. I’ve spent 25 years of my life pushing this club forward and not only could I not have done it without those fans, I do it for them.”

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Anders Lindegaard has signed a new four year deal with United. Awesome!

No direct comparisons but I really do love Lindy. He’s a great goal keeper who is just a shade behind DDG in certain aspects. His interviews are always awesome, his tweets are incredible and his attitude is exactly what you would want out of a Manchester United player. I was reading tweets from some people with United circles (Nick Coppack I think) that many think this year could be his year. As in he can stamp a place for himself if he’s up for it. But if not, what an awesome backup goalkeeper to have, right?

Fergie needs to back himself up now by delivering the signing which the club needs. And prove to us that the money is availible when needed. City, Chelsea, Arsenal and spurs are all spending. What is happening on the transfer front? We all got our hopes up on RVP but that seems to have gone cold and Juve are now in the hot seat. Moura has gone quiet. Is the money really there are are they just false activity.Fergie has had a lot of support over years from the fans and long may it continue, but making bold statements backing the Glazers and a week later they anounce they are ripping the club off is damaging. The only way he can settle things now is by pulling off some amazing signings. This wont take away that the fact that the Glazers are pocketing interest from the club but it will keep footballing interests up. If United fall behind City and Chelsea this year it could be damaging and fans could turn. Losing the title to City the way we did just devestated me. United need to react.

I think anybody who’s getting their hopes up on transfers is going to be disappointed.

If I’m reading it right, the statement says 40 mil net spend for the entire window. (If it’s 40 mil from now onwards, then please tell me so, and don’t bother reading the rest of this post!) We’ve approx. 25-30 mil left taking into account likely fund inflow from player sales and what we’ve spent till date. So where does that leave us?

1. Left back – 10ish spent on a young LB. If it’s Baines, Everton’s gonna have to stop playing silly buggers. I’m bullish on this one, Fergie’s almost as good as admitted we’re gonna buy a player for this position.

2. Fantasy player, say Moura – fuggedaboudit! Unless those ridiculous numbers of 30 mil are exactly that, i.e., ridiculous. More I think about it Moura seems to be a negotiation message for Nani.

3. Established midfielder, e,g., Modric, Moutinho, Sahin – ditto, particularly if the LB is coming in, w are just gonna be left with 15-20 mil.

4. RVP – not gonna happen, unless it runs to deadline day, and Monsieur has to choose between a distress sale and next year’s zilch

My bet would be on a young left back, and another young rabbit pulled straight out of Fergie’s arse, a la Chicharito.

For a long time Real and Barca had an advantage because of the tax rules. They were also knew if they overspent they could rely on help from the local government, national government, the Royal Family and the Spanish banks.

Things are changing though, the tax loops holes been fixed and with our tax rate coming down the UK is more appealing and with Real and Barca not having the safety net they can’t spend in the same way. Just look at how Real are haggling with Spurs over Modric, this isn’t their usually tactic. And Barcas president has stated that from now on they have to stick to their €40mill transfer budget.

The weathers still a major appeal, the latin players will favour spains lifestyle, the media fawning over them (Barca especially) helps and the way the TV deal ensures they will alway have some money to spend but there is a swing towards England.

@parryheid
Exactly, it’s exactly as I have been saying about him pretty much since his report on the Glazers mall business he did for MUST which was then used for the basis of the BBC program. I don’t know if it’s simply an ego thing with him as he likes the attention and TV appearances or if it’s the fact that MUST do pay him for some of work but he has been too eager to draw conclusions that he can’t back up and at times even completely misrepresent the facts to suit his agenda (as he did with the Mall Business as I pointed out in detail at the time)

@Esteban
Sadly the likes of MUST, Andy Green, Red Knights and the media have done such a number on 90% of fans that they have no idea what they want. Everything is contradictory. Things like Wanting 30mil+ spent on a single player each season and breaking the bank on wages but don’t want all the commercial deals & want cheap tickets. Want the debt paid down but want dividends to be paid.

@xol
MUST are deluded once again if they think this is the Glazers are preparing for an exit. If it was they would have gifted the Club all 16mill shares rather than just 8mill. The debt lowers the value of the club in a sale so if they were looking for a get out anytime soon they would have paid more of the clubs debt off rather than look to pay some of their own ‘debt’ acquired to buy the club.

@Kanchelskis
And Barca have stated they can’t exceed €40mill transfer spend no matter what now their safety net isn’t available. The only clubs With budgets significantly more than us are the sugar daddy clubs but how long will that last

And the budget hasn’t changed since day 1. If they had used a different figure in the IPO it’s possible it would have issues with the Bonds as for that it was expressly stated the budget was £25m net. The club have generally made over £10mill from transfers out so that boost the available funds and there generally seems to be a surplus for buying ‘key’ players which aren’t something you buy every summer.

@Atin
It seems to me the idea was to reduce the debt by $100m at this point and when the indication was that they would more than double that they have decided it makes more sense to reduce the debt on both sides. They will then wait for the price to reach a certain level and release more shares (which actually due to the voting rights makes the original public offering more valuable) and reduce the debt significantly on both sides if not wipe it out.

As for dividends I’m not sure they feel they could take dividends. If you look at the anger towards the Interest which they aren’t getting or the anger at the money they will get from selling their own shares (despite donating 8mill shares to the club and another chunk to the employee share scheme) then Imagine the anger if they were taking money directly out of the club. I would imagine they would be aware of this.

RE: Young/Nani debate
I have said this before but I think in Young and Valencia you have two similar players. Both are a little 1 dimensional in their style but both work hard both ways and are consistent and dependable . Youngs no where near Valencias level mind you as Valencia knows where he lacks in the Skill department but has honed the rest of his game to be offset the weakness

Nani on the other hand can lack constancy and certainly offers less going backwards than the other two but he has immense skill. While the other two are unlikely to unlock a team if they are having a poor game Nani has that ability. He can do something special at any time that will completely change a match that special players can do.

It simply comes down to each game and what you want from the team and what other players are picked when deciding on Young or Nani for the Left Wing role

There goes the woy hodgson-esque tactics. Play wingers to protect full-backs. Conservative and isn’t progressive. I don’t know why this debate is even coming up, Nani is by far the best winger at united. Young has and will never show ability to rival let alone thrump nani, the portuguese is miles better technically. The constant myth about he doesn’t have consistency is laughable. Why he has not been given a new deal is beyond me, he’s more important to the team than lindegaard in my view. No wonder why real-madrid have started to sniff for an opportunity to take him.

WRN, I guess it depends on whether they look at future payments (which they expect to pay) as being budgetted for. If not, then it leaves 25, let’s see if they do close the deals for those positions which are sorely lacking in depth. I’m still certain those publicly discussed targets are smokescreens, as usual.

On the £40 million quote, that was an estimation, it could be higher than that. Also, if Berbatov leaves that’s going to bolster the budget a bit, and also there’s a strong possibility that Nani will IF Lucas Moura is bought… remember we already have three wingers… Valencia not going to be sold and Ashley Young won’t be sold so quickly… Nani is the one with a year left on his contract and no new deal yet…

Well it was Sir Alex that used Young on the left for most of the title run in, not Hodgson. So obviously, he sees the need in using someone to make up for Evra’s shortcomings. And with good reason when you remember how inefficient Nani was in that role at home against Everton.

Ha ha ha…………. Will somebody piss on these turds that are calling the lads that (begrudgingly) helped form FC United. Who the fuck do they think they are calling them ‘cowards’ ‘traitors’ etc. They obviously know fuck all about the situation. I am assuming they are children. cyber-faggots, fucking no-marks!! As for fergie, best manager ever.